When It's Not a Game Anymore
by Dan Breaddy
Summary: It had all started with a game to keep them busy. Befriend a loser and make them go away? but when a game crosses the line, choices must be made, and it's guaranteed that people will be hurt. D/G romance, R/R!
1. Chapter 1

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Disclaimer: I own Ginny's dress and the dishes, but I don't own anything else, including characters, places, and the AFLAC duck.

Author's Note: Um.. this is a little story that I was supposed to post up for a fanfic challenge, but kinda lost interest in writing the beginning and just wanted to finish the end cuz I'm lazy and the ending would be more interesting, I thought. So if you get confused, here's what's happened before the story picks up:

Draco, Pansy, and the rest of the Slytherins are bored. They want to expel someone, like they did to Hannah Abbot of Hufflepuff. They pick a target: Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor. But the smallest Weasley hides inner strength. She's an outcast extrodinare since the Chamber of Secrets incident. But she doesn't let that get to her, she keeps up the typical Weasley humor and wit, surpassing Ron in grades, since they take the same classes. The Slytherins draw straws, and who else better to get rid of her than Draco Malfoy? Surprisingly, he falls in love with the one person he can't as he tries to get her to reveal her fears and secrets. He asks her to the upcoming ball, much to Ron's, Hermoine's, and Harry's surprise. Pansy asks Draco to come to a room with him and tells Millicent to get Ginny and have her stand behind the door while she asks him why it's taking so long, not suspecting that Ginny stands outside the door while Draco shows his true colors. Crying, she runs back to the ball and waits for him. Upon arriving, she questions him and runs away from the ball, Draco in close pursuit.

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Interesting, huh?

But anyways, this was a challenge and there were certain lines I had to put in here. They're in bold, if you wanna know which ones they were.

Summary: It had all started with a game to keep them busy. Befriend a loser and make them go away… but when a game crosses the line, choices must be made, and you can guarantee that people will be hurt. D/G romance, Please R/R!

Dedication: This story is dedicated to my dog, Koko. See, we had to give her away, and she's kinda old, like 11. See… she's attacked 3 dogs since we got her, and we don't know what's wrong with her, so we have to give her to the shelter, and I know that she'll hate it. She's a chocolate lab mix, and is the sweetest thing you ever saw. So this story/chapter is dedicated to her or to her memory.

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No one sits with him, he doesn't fit in

But we feel like we do and we make fun of him

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Cuz you want to belong, do you go along?

Cuz his pain is the price paid for you to belong**.**

It's not like you hate him or want him you die

but maybe he goes home and thinks suicide

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or he comes back to school with a gun at his side

and a kindness from you might've saved his life.

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Hero's are made when you make a choice.

~ Superchic[k]'s Hero

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Chapter 1: Makings of a Hero

"Wait, Ginny! Stop!" yelled Draco as he ran to catch up with her. She didn't even turn around and acknowledge his comment; she kept running as if her beautiful white Grecian dress was on fire.

Behind him, the door to the Great Hall slammed shut. Draco could still hear some music streaming out as the students danced. A ball was held as a celebration for the end of the year, and it had turned out catastrophes.

He gave a frustrated sigh and kept running, trying to gain distance, closing the gap between them. He used an extra burst of energy and caught up with her, and grabbed her bare shoulders and stopped. He was panting but she wasn't even sweating. She huffed and tried to move out of his grasp, but as tired as he was, his hands stayed firm on her shoulders and upper sides of her arm.

"Ginny," he said, gasping, "Please… I – I'm sorry, I really am…" he kept one arm on her shoulder and placed the other on his chest, catching his breath. His heart beat rapidly, threatening to break through his ribs and chest. She looked at him with an unemotional stare, her brown eyes boring into his gray ones. "**Imagine for a moment someone is grounding you insides and is now merrily feeding them to your intestines. Wouldn't that be the worst**?" she asked with a hint of malice in her voice. It was so strange hearing it, seeing how Draco was used to a more musical, melodic voice. It was like ice.

"Because that's how I feel right now, so I hope that you're happy. I hope that you've found enough that will send me away from school, that will label me as a failure for forever."

"Ginny, lemme explain…" he said, but Ginny cut him off.

"You know, it's so like _you _to do this to someone like _me_. I was the perfect challenge for you, the leper-girl whose tough demeanor hides a little butterfly who looks for a companion… I should've known, damnnit!"

"Look, I really am sorry! I didn't mean… didn't mean for it to go this far…" he said, still gasping for air. He looked at her face and his fell from the look of it. She obviously didn't believe him; it was written on every freckle of her face.

And after what had just happened, she shouldn't.

"You know, _Malfoy, _so am I," she said finally, the word 'Malfoy' dripping with venom. She was no longer his 'friend', she was a mere stranger that he happened to be talking to. Malfoy looked up. She had not moved at all, her face still impassive as if it had been stone. "I'm sorry that I ever gave you the time of day, or help in potions, or ever a spare thought. I'm sorry to have thought that someone actually cared enough to spend time with me, to kiss me… I'm sorry to believe someone _cared_ about me. Five years and I still haven't learned that no one wants to befriend a nerd. A geek, a loser, a social failure; it was ludicrous of me to believe that someone cared and that someday I could love someone else who loved me back. I should've questioned your motives more.

"So I'm sorry too. And I never thought that it would go this far." She finished, and her face looked a little more flushed than usual, but it showed no emotion. Her eyes, however, showed just how betrayed she felt, how unsure of herself she now was. Ginny turned to go.

"Ginny, I know this is going to sound preposterous, but I – I love you." He had said the three words that had been racing through his mind for the longest time.

"You know, Malfoy, that does sound a bit preposterous. And it also sounds desperate. But if you had told me that five minutes before now, I might've believed you," she said coolly.

She was fuming at herself; how could she fall for such a trap?! She should've _known_ that she was going to get hurt, like last time, and that no one _really _cared for her, like last time. Tom was right. No one would _ever_, could _ever_ love such a reject, such a leper like her.

No one. Certainly not Draco Malfoy, the prince of Slytherin.

"You – you mean you don't believe me?" Draco asked incredulously. Ginny looked at him for a moment and a face of pity came upon her. But she brushed it aside. "I'm not sure I know what to believe now. And I'm sorry that it had to end like this." She removed his arms with her hands and walked away.

She didn't look back.

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It had started with a simple task. Find something that Ginny was afraid of, use it against her, and make her leave. Humiliate her; grind her face in the dust. He was bored, it would make him laugh. Especially since she was a Weasley.

Draco had been chosen to befriend her, pretend that he had a deeper, nicer side so she would tell him secret things. And he knew that she would tell them to him. When you had no one to tell secrets too, you generally told anyone who cared. It was all innocent fun, to him. This was what he did. This is what his father did.

He had never planned on falling in love with the reject.

Never planned to spend days in the library, just staring at her long straight red hair.

He hadn't prepared to stay up all night, just thinking about what it would be like to kiss her.

He could have never prepared himself for what it _did _feel like to kiss her.

He wasn't prepared to handle the sleepless nights of denial or the jolt of electricity that flew up his arm whenever they held hands.

He hadn't counted on Pansy betraying him. He hadn't though that she would invite him to a classroom the night of the ball, and have Millicent invite Ginny to stand outside while they talked. He should've known when she began interrogating him that on the other side, Ginny was hearing every word that came out of his mouth.

"No, I don't like the Weasley girl! She's hideously ugly."

"I'm working on it, Pansy, she just has no weakness that I can see yet. Give me some more, and I promise, you and I can get together some night so we can thing of something to do."

"Yes, I know that it's almost the end of the year, but if we can make it look like she's broken some major rule, maybe she'll be expelled."

He hadn't thought that she might set him up to ruin him. He hadn't even given the Slytherins a second thought while he studied in the library complicated formulas for Transfiguration with Ginny, who was in seventh year, with him, to occupied trying to figure out why her hair smelt like strawberries than to ask her what she was most afraid of.

Malfoy took one last look down the hall where Ginny had disappeared in and walked in the other direction, silent as the gray stone hallway that surrounded him.

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Draco walked slowly to the Slytherin table, unaccompanied. His heavy bag, weighed down with extra homework assignments. If he kept busy, he had reasoned, maybe he could ignore the pain in his heart, the raw scar left by Ginny's words. His 'friends' had deserted him after he had failed to complete his little 'task'. They glared at him viciously.

He sat at the end of the table and placed his books down under his seat. He began piling food on his plate and wordlessly began eating. Everything now was a bland motion, there was no thought or effort or meaning into his life.

The food had no flavor. It hadn't had a flavor for a week now.

His eyes were blank and dull and his hair hung lifelessly to his head. He had half-heartedly gelled it down and now rebellious strands of white hung in front of his eyes. He shooed them impatiently out of his face, remembering how he himself had gently placed the red strand behind her ear. He remembered her own chocolate pools staring at the hand, frightfully and curiously. She had shuddered when he had touched her ear, and her breathing had became very awkward. She stared at him for what seemed like eternity until, when he couldn't take it anymore, he leaned in and pressed his lips against her warm ones. She had muttered his name breathy in his ear, a question and a statement and a curse and a blessing all at the same time.

And it drove him insane that he would never hear it again.

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Author's Note: Ok, I know that I must've confused _someone _out there. So if I did, e~mail me @ **Demetria1234@cs.com**** and ask me about it, and I'll e~mail you back and explain.**

And if you want to know when I update, and I will, trust me, leave a workin e~mail address so that I can e~mail you when I update.

And I do think that I will continue this, as in: it's not over yet. That means review and tell me everything you liked and didn't and any questions you might have, and I might do a shoutout to you!

READING AND REVIEWING IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH. MAKE SURE YOU DO IT AND DO IT OFTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks and luv ya! ~ Kiah

Remember: Always read and review the stories that you bother to click on, honesty is the best policy (but, apparently, by process of elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy) never accept candy from strangers, even if it's the good kind of candy, and never, ever eat yellow snow. However, baby blue snow with pink, heart shaped sprinkles is perfectly acceptable.


	2. Chapter 2

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Disclaimer: I own nothing you see here, and am not making any money from this story. Any money @ all.

Author's Note: Again, this is a fanfic challenge. All quotes are in bold that I used. I have no idea where the quote people got these… they're just.. there!

Draco says a bad word, so readers: beware.

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You could be a

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Hero.

You could do what's

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Right.

You could be a

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Hero.

You could join the

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Fight.

For what's right,

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for what's right,

for what's right**.**

~ Hero, by Superchic[k]

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When It's Not a Game Anymore

Chapter 2

A cool breeze blew past Draco as he sat on the hillside, musing his long hair. The spring sun was setting in a dazzling display of reds and oranges and yellows. The sky behind him was already a deep purple and blue, dotted with small sparkling diamonds. He sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest.

He wasn't the same. This school year had changed him dramatically - too dramatically. He would throw half-hearted insults at Harry and his friends, but catch Ginny lurking in the background, or around the corner. She would stare at him with cold, hurt eyes, and suddenly, he'd stop.

Now, even throwing insults at the Gryffindors was no longer amusing.

And nobody from the Slytherin house would acknowledge him because of his weakness, and just today, he had received a letter from his father. An angry, hateful letter that demanded an explanation for his actions, or so the first line stated. He threw it out without even looking at it.

He could've pretended that he didn't care what they thought and like it never had happed, but he didn't. It wasn't like he was concerned about self-image; Ginny had taught him to stop caring about what people thought. No, it was because he didn't want to be fake, and he didn't want to pretend nothing had happened. He knew this is what he deserved, but he also didn't want to throw away the memories that the two had when they were on speaking terms.

"Hi," said a weak, timid voice behind him. He turned around and faced Ginny. The wind blew her red hair to the side over her head, but her eyes remained steady on his. Anger gathered up inside him, and his hands clenched into fists.

"What do you want?" he asked harshly. She flinched, her brown eyes searching him.

"May I sit down," she asked after taking a deep breath. He shrugged. "It's not mine, so I can't tell you were you can and can't sit."

Her eyes quivered and her lip trembled. She felt like screaming 'Don't be like this', but she knew that it would be fruitless. He wanted to brood and plot revenge, not to let it go as she so easily had.

She sat down next to him, silently, and watched the sun set. Her hair, in some places, looked lighter in the light and darker in the night. Her pink lips were set and she stared determinedly out into the disappearing sun.

"Why are you here?" he asked her, glaring at her under hooded eyes.

"I feel like it," she shrugged, her small shoulders moving up and then down. Her heart was pounding, and she was surprised that he couldn't hear it.

"Did you come here because you want to make me feel bad? Because you want to rub it in my face that I've sunk down to your social status, Weasley?"

"Draco, what are you talking about?" she asked. He turned his head and looked at her. Her brown eyes, filled with concern, moved up and down his face. For a moment, he felt a tingle that he hadn't felt in weeks. "I don't understand why you're being so… hostile," she said.

"Hostile? Why shouldn't I be hostile. My whole life, down the drain in one night, and I'm not aloud to be fuckin' hostile at the damn world?"

"Please, stop," she begged. "You're blowing this out of propositions now…"

"What am I supposed be, happy? Happy that I'm a fuckin' loser and the whole school thinks it too?"

She was silent, left speechless. "You mean, you're not happy like this? Where no one cares who you are or what you do. You're free to be whatever you want to be now."

"You seriously think I'd be happy like this, woman?! Is that what you're saying?" he yelled at her, jumping off the ground. She bit her lips, refusing to cry the tears that welled up at her eyes. She brushed them aside as she rose. Her bottom lip quivered and her heart raced. She was so confused, she had never seen Draco like this, and it pained her that he was angry at her. He looked like it might kill her.

"You liar," she accused him. "You told me you didn't give a damn what anyone thought about you, and here you are, brooding because you're the bitch of the school. You are nothing but a liar who should rot in hell for the rest of his life.

"This is Hell for me," he said.

"But yes, ok? I'd thought that you might like it this way. To be a nobody, to be a loner, to be a laughing stock." The tears flowed down her cheeks and dripped onto her worn robe. She ignored them. "I thought that maybe we could get together again, since you've become a leper like me."

"Oh what now? 'Birds of a feather stick together', is that what you're trying to tell me?" Malfoy swore he was seeing red. The Weasley girl still made his heart pound and his head become dizzy, but not in the way that it had. He wanted to kill her, she was making him so frustrated. Here, she was showing him how human she was, with small words he could understand.

"No! Yes!" she said shakily. She brushed a tear that ran down her cheek with a trembling hand. "This is what you get when someone backstabs you, Malfoy. Ok? This is what you get!" she gestured around to the empty lakeside. The Quidditch flags flapped as the sky around them became dark.

"You're alone. No one wants to talk to the misfit, once you've been used, but they all talk about you. You hear the whispers and the laughter and the glares that they send you. No one sits next to you because you have a bad case of loser-itis. **It's not much, but I call it Hell**.

"So I know what you're going through," she said quietly.

"No you don't, you bitch," he said. The insult stung and Ginny became silent, small whimpers emitting from her mouth left from her sobbing. "All my 'friends' have deserted me and now I might be disowned from my father's will, and this is all because of you."

"As if you don't deserve it!" she yelled back. "As if you're the only victim in this whole ordeal! As if you were the only one to be hurt, you bastard! All you _deserve _right now, Malfoy, is to rot in eternal damnation, you lying, selfish moronic narcissist."

She turned to walk away, and Malfoy crossed his arms and glared at her as her figure became smaller and smaller as she walked down the dirt path.

"And dammit, I thought I loved you," she whispered, but loud enough that the man behind her could hear, drawing her hands up as tears streamed down her face.

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Author's Note: So… what did you think? Was it good? Was Draco OoC? Was Ginny OoC? TELL ME IN A REVIEW!

Many thanks to: karamel-flavoured-rain (yes, very good point! I think I will**), Melanie Pointe, Hunter, gohansfan (**yes, you made perfect sense to me. I'll try to do that; I only picked up becuz I was a bit too lazy to write out the game part of it**), seekerpeeker, Slytherin Mistress, air (**one press, I believe, is sufficient!)**, WaitingOnYou, Darcel, Angelic Nightmare (**my best friend saw it and she said it wasn't all that good. She hated the ending**), No Name, Sharlene, m.white, clare, FredrickWeasley, wolviesrogue, Anonymous, Crystal, and SlytherinAngelGirl.**


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